Name's Jason Thibeault. I'm an IT guy, skeptic, feminist, gamer and atheist, and love OSS, science of all stripes (especially space-related stuff), and debating on-line and off. I enjoy a good bit of whargarbl now and again, and will occasionally even seek it out. I am also apparently responsible for the death of common sense on the internet. My bad.

EVENTS

The contact form is now changed…

Ed got annoyed after one too many letters like this:

Name: kristopher kusch
Comment: I would start off by saying that even though I disagree with your faith, I do respect that you have one. Faith is believing in things that you cant see,so with that thought yes by definition people who believe in Jesus are opperating in faith. The fact that you haven’t seen him and dont believe in him follows that same amount of faith. I would add that my heart isn’t to prove you wrong. What I’m asking you to consider is this, is it possible that you are angry with God.

SNIP.

My only response to this, was “*sigh*”.

So, because of his annoyance, the contact form has been modified to be for technical support only. I included the language he gave me verbatim. (With a slight tweak to retain the “we will do whatever we want with the info you put in this form, be warned” language I inserted the first time around. You know, the language that gives me carte blanche to post this.)

The full rant is below the fold, if you’re interested.

I would start off by saying that even though I disagree with your faith, I do respect that you have one. Faith is believing in things that you cant see,so with that thought yes by definition people who believe in Jesus are opperating in faith. The fact that you haven’t seen him and dont believe in him follows that same amount of faith. I would add that my heart isn’t to prove you wrong. What I’m asking you to consider is this, is it possible that you are angry with God. Even to the point of haiting him. Personally the line of questioning I saw on your show, Did God create Hell and is he in control of everything were answered yes by the Christian women and you spoke the absolute truth when you said then he is sending people to Hell. Again if I didn’t qoute you perfectly Its only because I’m not trying to attack you or nit pick or throw things back in your face. I actually agree with that statement. I understand that this has no real meaning to you because you don’t believe in him. If I understood what or why you were saying that was to prove the point of how could someone not recognize that truth in the sence that makes no sence if he is all Loving. Mabey im assuming thats what you meant, so if Im wrong i do appologize. That is all said because I just wanted to make clear that I was listening the best I could, I don’t know you and I don’t want to assume I understand exactly where your coming from. I have some one close to me who is a athiest and in are discussions science has been used as a tool to prove that God doesnt exist. I intern asked him If he could follow this thought with me out of respect as I did for him. Yes some of his points were valid, then I asked him if he thought that I could do the same with scientific facts or points to fuel the fire for creationalism or God existing he said yes. Im not saying your going to do the same. Presented that to present this, Is it possible to load the deck on either side of the discussion. For example it you break down what is in a book, the making and material both hold scientific value. Thats factual and the fact is there are alot of Bibles in the world along with alot of other books. So this truth is here, you and me were not there millions and billions and even 80 years ago. So what we believe functions in faith. The other thing is that you know that science does change, its not always absolute, some of it is, but even there it can because because of the humans limited ability,(matter and now theres antimatter) So I just wanted to share some of my thoughts. Again to let you know that they are not perfect, they are not here to prove anything. I wanted to make myself known because thats really the question that im asking. Would you share that answer on your program. Is it possible that rather then not believing there is a God,you actually hate that he is in control and in your mind or heart you believe he is doing a bad job. Two last things, please forgive my writing style and my spelling, not the best. The second thing is have you asked this question of yourself, I think it is appropriate for you to ask the rough or tuff questions about God to others,I would like to know if you have asked them of yourself. I share my belief with you not to convert you into my way of thinking,I share it because Im asking you to do the same. I believe God is in control and the truth is it makes me angry sometimes because it doesnt make sence, I believe that he is reflects my limited free will, its not like i can create a moon or tree just because my free will says so. Ive learned that he respects peoples choices and beliefs,Jesus himself said that the Spirit of religion will kill you. He is going to honor those people who choose to reject him, I do belive that this is part of what Hell is going to be, to the depth of your being recognizing that you have rejected The Holy Spirit, the only one sin that he says wont be forgiven, he never said you couldnt question him or be honest about how your thinking or feeling, he does say that because he is a gentlemen he will honor ones choice or request to be eternally seperated from him. This is my greatest struggle so far. Thanks for hearing me out and im am interested to here what you think, I dont want to pretend that I care enough about you to try and convince you to change your mind, I dont know you and Im not saying that to be cold or mean, I am interested in your responce, Thank you. My spelling is pretty bad, or it is so evovled,someday it may catch on………………….

That looks too serious without a Comic Sans font. Not that I have much against Comic Sans, other than its being overused. I understand it’s a very good font for people with reading difficulties or partial sight.

Comments

One the reason the trolls use the form is probably the lack of any email addresses on most FtB blogs, including yours and Brayton’s. Aside from PZ Myers and a scant few others, there aren’t any addresses. The only means of “contact” is posting a comment unrelated to a blog post (i.e. what I am having to do here), which is not something non-trolls want to do.

If the contact form isn’t for writing to bloggers and there are no addresses, how are people supposed to write to them? I emailed a comment to PZ Myers asking about father’s day because he is one of the few who does provide an address (*). There was no one else to write to, and no means of contact other than the form which says “the form is not for contacting bloggers”. It’s perfectly understandable to want to keep the baying idiots at bay, but you’re keeping everyone else away too.

(* I asked of Myers, “How about a mention on father’s day of those who can’t have kids because of infertility or those who choose not to, re: the environment, poverty, etc.?” That’s hardly an offensive thing to ask, and certainly not a religious troll.)

@5: Please Jason, you (and all bloggers) obviously owe me your time and attention through whatever mechanism I desire by virtue of posting things on the internet. How can you possibly have been blogging for so long without understanding that? At the very least, Silencing™ me in that fashion makes you a Bad Person. :-P

(@Finger Printz: I don’t actually think you’re a dedicated troll, but it is up to bloggers whether they’re actually interested in hearing from their readers about things not directly related to their particular blog posts. You may think that’s a bad policy, but you’re opinion on how blogs should be run is really only applicable to any blogs you wish to operate.)